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Foot soldiers of the movement commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday by leading a march of thousands across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on Sunday.(Photo: MICKEY WELSH/ADVERTISER)
SELMA. Ala. — Alabama Reps. John Knight and Thad McClammy looked over with a smile and a shrug, the two lawmakers turning their bodies back and forth as they shuffled their way up the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
It was a little after 3 p.m. on the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, and an unexpectedly large crowd of marchers, and a series of at least three unplanned marches across the bridge by several hundred participants each time, had transformed the four lanes of the Edmund Pettus into a mass of barely moving humanity.
"I parked on the other side," Knight said, with a grimace. "We just left the church service, got here early this morning. We have to get across."
It would not be an easy trip for anyone.
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Overwhelmed early by a crowd that swelled to more than 70,000, according to Alabama state troopers' estimates, police essentially tossed in the towel after several attempts to remove people from the bridge were unsuccessful.
Once the police abandoned efforts to put barriers in place to prevent the crowd from spilling onto the bridge from Broad Street and stopped trying to clear the bridge, the duty fell to Bridge Crossing Jubilee organizers and security, many of whom walked up and down the bridge with megaphones asking that people either get off the bridge or move to the sidewalks on either side.
When those efforts failed to inspire cooperation, a haphazard plan materialized to allow some groups of marchers to proceed with small marches across the bridge in the hopes that officials could move enough people across to allow the official march to begin.
Numerous times, the groups who were about to start a march across the bridge would ask, "Is this the real march?" Each time, they were told it wasn't.
Meanwhile, many of the event's dignitaries and biggest names were attending an exceptionally long church service at Brown Chapel AME Church, where speeches from Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, among others, carried a service scheduled to end at 1 until well past 2.
Outside the church following the service, Selma Mayor George Evans told a crowd gathering to begin the usual march through downtown and across the Edmund Pettus, that there would be a delay.
"We've had to ask the governor's office for assistance with the crowd," Evans said. "There is no violence or anything like that. We're dealing with issues of dignity and respect."
However, while marchers certainly had their own causes and reasons for attending Sunday's event, and despite a pressing, shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, there was little disrespect or indignity among those on the bridge.
For the millions of people who would have loved to be in Selma but couldn't, we put you there in full 360-degree video. Be among the thousands of people singing and chanting as they walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on the 50[SUP]th[/SUP] anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." Navigate by moving your mouse to the right or left to get the full 360-degree view.
The mass of people stayed surprisingly upbeat and cordial to each other, even while ignoring calls for them to leave the bridge.
Evans said he requested 50 additional officers to help clear the bridge so an official march could be held. Bentley's office confirmed that request was granted.
But by then, it was too late.
The smaller groups of marchers who crossed the bridge quickly discovered that there was nothing to hold them on the other side and that most of the merchandise tents, food vendors and portable toilets were on the side they had just left.
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So, they began to trickle back, meeting up with the second, third and fourth groups attempting to cross. By 3 p.m., the bridge had become clogged with people and Selma officials were legitimately concerned that it was unsafe.
Jackson told people at Brown Chapel that he was concerned for their safety and suggested that maybe they shouldn't march.
For many, that concern was well placed.
While temperatures remained in the high 60s, low 70s, several people were overwhelmed by the crowd and lost consciousness. Most had to be carried off the bridge by those around them, because getting medical assistance to them was impossible.
"I've never seen anything quite like this," said Roderick Harris, who traveled to Selma from Maryland for the anniversary. "This is getting out of hand quick."
In this aerial view, crowds of people move in a symbolic march across Edmund Pettus Bridge Sunday in Selma, Ala. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," a civil rights march in which protesters were beaten, trampled and tear-gassed by police.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Butch Dill, AP)
One of the thousands trapped among the slow-moving crowd was 109-year-old Amelia Boynton Robinson — one of the organizers of the 1965 Bloody Sunday march and one of the marchers who was beaten by state troopers that day. In a wheelchair and with family members fanning her with newspapers, Boynton was slowly rolled along the bridge, a circle of six people holding hands around Boynton to prevent anyone in the crowd from falling on her.
Still, there were thousands jammed into the first three blocks of Broad Street waiting for the official march to begin. And more were on the way.
Despite Jackson's concerns and Evans' request, an unusually large group of people went ahead with the walk from Brown's Chapel towards downtown. As that group made the turn onto Broad, the reality of the situation hit home, and most people, at that point, gave up on the idea of an official march.
"It was crazy," said Arthur Oscar Jones, who said he was present on the bridge in 1965 and had been beaten by state troopers. "Most of these people have no idea why they're marching. They're here to have a celebration."
That feeling was fairly evident, as was the fact that the event had been co-opted for a variety of causes — from the "Black Lives Matter" movement to "Hands Up Don't Shoot" protesters to gay marriage supporters to immigration supporters to those who went with the buffet approach.
Terry Wright, from Birmingham, was part of the last group. Among the seven signs she carried and attempted to display simultaneously were complaints about high interest rates on payday loans, police brutality, the grocery tax and voter ID laws. Wright also repeated her protests again and again to the marchers walking by, many of whom shared their causes with her.
"People have literally used this event for whatever cause they have," said Alicia Cohen, a University of Alabama student. Cohen and two college friends, Teairra Evans and Tatiya Maddox, were more interested in the experience of it all, saying they felt the event was simply too close not to drive down.
Several others on the bridge shared that sentiment. They, along with everyone else, left with an experience no one planned, few could explain and even fewer expected.
Contributing: Alvin Benn, The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser
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